She Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool (CD - 2006)

By 2006, country music's eternal sweetheart, Barbara Mandrell, was a little bit out of the spotlight. This loving tribute album places her back in her rightful place, with reverent and straightforward covers of her best material. While most of the arrangements replicate the originals almost exactly (albeit with powerhouse singers like Gretchen Wilson, Shelby Lynn, and Terri Clark at the mic), there are some nice surprises: LeAnn Rimes turns in a sultry and soulful reading of "If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right," and Dierks Bentley reworks the sprightly "Fast Lanes & Country Roads" into a pistol-hot outlaw country rocker. minimize